These past two months have been so all over the place and busy for me that I totally forgot to do a post for August and now I’ve almost forgot about September too. In this post I’m going to write about what I did in app development land in August and September. However, I’m going to try to keep it short because I need to jump back into working on various tasks. The rest of this year is going to continue being busy with app development and a lot of important things going on outside of app dev as well.

In August I finished working on Master Fantasy RPG Soundboard and released it on the Apple, Amazon, & Google Play app stores. The app turned out like I wanted it to and I enjoyed working on it overall except for the testing phase, which was the most stressful aspect of working on it. After finishing the app and testing it on various devices I ran into an issue where the app crashed on most devices except for newer ones. After trying an assortment of different fixes it turned out to be in the code in regards to the way I had sounds loading in the app. None of my other soundboard apps have long load times, but while I was working on this soundboard app I created it with a different way of loading sounds in mind. I thought it would make the app load even faster than my other soundboard apps while also delivering any sound pressed instantly like the others apps do. However, it turned out that I was asking too much of the engine I used for this app and that’s basically what caused it to crash. So to fix the issue I changed the way that I make the app load sounds back to how I do with my other soundboard apps. Which I guess lead back to the old saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That saying definitely applied to this situation and I could have avoided some stress and long nights.

So after fixing the load issue that caused Master Fantasy RPG Soundboard to crash I started working on promo images and a simple trailer video. I wanted the video to be simple but also give the viewer a good idea of how efficient the app is at playing sounds instantly, and how vast the sound effect library is within the app. This app like all my other apps does not require a data connection to be used. After downloading the app you can use it anytime regardless of how bad your data connection is or lack thereof. I had the idea of this fantasy soundboard in my mind for the past couple of years, but kept pushing it back to work on other apps and updates. I’m glad that I came back to it and completed it. I think it’s a neat companion to use during board games, role-playing, and reenactments. I’m sure people will use it in those ways and other ways I haven’t even thought of like people have done with my other soundboard apps. There are some pictures of working on some of the sound and visual design of this app on the July App Development Report. I do plan on having a picture section on this site eventually that showcases some of the photos I’ve taken of my “behind the scenes” app development and design processes. As of now I mainly post those types of images on my Instagram, on these monthly progress posts, and sometimes on my Twitter.

In September I decided to work on an update to my Rest, Relax, and Reflect app. I’ve been told by some of the users of the app that they wished it had a Thunderstorm section which I agreed and thought it should as well. I’m not sure why I didn’t include that section initially. I probably rushed myself to release it so I could dedicate time on another project. It’s not a super popular app but adding a Thunderstorm section and making some other improvements wasn’t going to take long and were going to improve the app nicely so I went for it. One of the first things I did is take pictures for the Thunderstorm section and while taking some of those pictures I decided to take some pictures for some of the other sections to replace the background pics that I didn’t take myself. So now all of the background pictures in the game were taken by me except some of the fireplace photos. Taking the pictures myself for the other sections helped me incorporate the animation effects better and gave the app the perspective I wanted it to have more in those sections.

In between taking and editing the photos I also worked on the Thunderstorm section animations and sound. Audio is more important to me in this app than animation so I spent more time on it. After working on some audio I played around with some different rain and lightning effects until they felt right. Then I separated the intensity levels into low, medium, and heavy like I did for the other sections. After finishing the thunderstorm section and incorporating the new backgrounds for the rain & snow sections I decided to replace some of the fireplace photos as well. I looked around on the internet for public domain fireplace photos until I found a couple that I thought looked great and would play well into the fireplace animation that’s kind of realistic but also kind of looks computer generated.

I also made the background thumbnails in each settings section(except Space Travel) react to whether or not the Black & White option is on or off. Before, the thumbnails would stay in color regardless of if that B&W option was on or off. Now the thumbnails change to black & white or color depending on what’s chosen for that option. It’s a small change but its neat and makes sense that it should react that way. I’m kind of surprised that I didn’t do that when I initially created this app. Regardless, I finished the update last month and testing went well so I released it soon after. It’s available on the Apple & Amazon app stores, and I also released the app itself for the first time on Google Play. I decided to make it free(with ads) on Google Play since its been out for years on the other app stores. It’s still ad free on the other app stores which does deliver a more simple and less distracting experience, which is good for an app that’s main goal is to help the user relax.

Some of the new background images with effects overcast

If you would have asked me a couple of months ago what my last app of 2018 would be I would have told you Master Fantasy RPG Soundboard, but yea……..another app idea popped up in my head that I thought would be a great idea to try to finish and release this year. It’s an app that revolves around Christianity and the bible. I’m a Christian and I believe in God, but I’m not one that shoves it in peoples face. I also recognize that some Christians are hypocrites, which gives the rest of us a bad name. I’m not trying to prove anybody right or wrong, or make judgements. I just want to create a simple to use app that helps others and myself learn more about the bible, and hopefully this app will accomplish that. I’ll just leave it at that until the next progress report post. Alright, I wrote that I wanted to make this post short but I ended up writing a few long paragraphs so that’s all I’ll write for now. I’m sure I’ve left out some things that I worked on and am going to work on, but these posts are supposed to be overviews without going into a lot of details. Until next time ∞

The one and only app I worked on in May is the educational finance app, and the work that was done on it varied greatly in 30min-2hour increments throughout the month. The only aspect of the app I worked on in May was adding more information and also rewording some information. As I added more info I decided to change the wording in some of the questions so there wasn’t any hesitation of what the answer would be if you were sure of the answer. With my educational apps I’m not trying to trick anyone into thinking something false, but instead help people become knowledgable about something new to them and also refresh and/or retain the knowledge of those that are informed on the subject or have been in the past.

In May I finished the formulas & ratios section which turned out to be the second largest category in the app and probably my favorite to work on. One reason why I liked working on it is because you can ask more than one question about each ratio without repeating the same question or answer. You can ask about the definition of the ratio, what the ratio is used for, the formula of the ratio, and what different results exhibit about a company or stock. Ratios are a very informative area of finance and I think this category of my app will be very useful for a wide range of investors and students.

Working on the formulas & ratios category in my app. The visible data on the spreadsheet only shows about .05% of the informational data in this app!

Throughout May I also added a few more lines of data to the abbreviations section. One of the podcasts I listen to on a somewhat normal basis in the car is a finance & investing podcast so there were a couple of moments where I would hear something and notice that the issue or terminology used wasn’t incorporated in my app yet. So when this happened I would jot down a quick note in my phone(at a stop light 🙂 ) to remind myself to add information about that topic during one of my next app dev sessions.

In June I plan on finishing and releasing this finance app. I’m really looking forward to completing this app. This app is kind of a personal project for me because I have an interest in Finance and investing personally and professionally. I also have a degree in Business Administration Finance but I don’t use the knowledge I obtained throughout those college years on a daily basis and not even professionally so using this app will be a nice way to refresh and retain information. I think it will end up being very useful for others in a somewhat similar experience like me, newcomers to this subject matter, and people who work in finance and investing areas.

After finishing the Finance app, hopefully in June, I’ll be jumping back into a soundboard app I’ve been working on and I hope to finish and release it in July! It will probably be my last soundboard app for a while though. I like making soundboard apps and the ones I’ve created get downloads, some more than others of course, so those are two good reasons to continue with them. Anyways, back to work on this finance app. Until next time ∞

Put together the Happy Holidays App Bundle for iPad that’s available on the Apple App Store. Like I’ve said before, I really like the ability to put together discounted bundles on the Apple App Store, and I’ll continue to embrace it when it makes sense. I wish the other app stores would give developers & publishers the ability to put together bundles as well.

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Finished Ultra Big Celebration Soundboard and released it on the Apple, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble app stores. It’s a really neat novelty soundboard app that can be used for any kind of celebration when you feel like playing various sounds on your phone. This app has a lot of different high quality sounds which include; horns, bells, fireworks, crowds, party noises, dubstep sounds, and other great effects. I enjoyed designing this app and working on sounds in GarageBand for it. I like my soundboard apps to have a sleek minimalistic design that focuses mainly on the buttons so that’s what I went with for this one as well. I wanted to make a trailer for it, but I was incredibly busy in December outside of app development. I still might put one together sometime in the near future, but for now here’s a quick Vine video of it in action……..

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Worked on the educational numbers game that I mentioned back in theNovember Mobile App Progress Report. If I weren’t so busy outside of app development right now this one would be closer to being finished, but I still have a good bit of work to do on it before it’s complete. This is the main app I’ll be working on in January when I have time. I ended up changing the art style, but I still maintained some of the minimal blocky look it had before. I’ll tweet out a screenshot of it sometime in the near future before release. Really excited to release this app, but I want to make sure it has more modes than I initially made for it so progress must continue on it.

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Worked on theUltra Soccer Match Soundboard 1.1 updatefor theApple App Store. The update was submitted in December, but it didn’t go live until January. I forgot to fix a minor issue in it so I’ll be releasing another update for it soon. It still works great like normal, but there’s a minor graphical issue with one of the backgrounds. The newer update will also be on the other app stores that this app is available on, and it will include the improvements from the previous update.

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That was it for December. I’m actually surprised I was able to get that much work done considering everything else that was going on with me in December. I’ll be writing a 2014 overview/wrap up post soon like I’ve done before for previous years. This one will probably be short because I’ve got a lot of actual app development work I need to do in January and not much time to do it. 2014 was the first year that I wrote a “progress report” for each month, and I plan on continuing to do that in 2015. I like writing these posts to go over with myself what I’ve worked, to organize future development thoughts in my mind, and I like to give anybody who’s interested a little insight on my app development. Back to work. Happy New Year! Until next time ∞

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Jumbo Egg Hunt 3

Kids Coin Quiz – Alexa Skill

Master Fantasy RPG Soundboard

Quiz of Finance & Investing

8-Bit Ultra Fortune Ball

Word Owl’s Word Search Classroom Bundle

Word Owl’s Word Search – Third Grade

RX Quiz of Pharmacy

Word Owl’s Word Search – Halloween Edition

Survive in Hyperdrive

Crunchy Numbers Math Arcade

Ultra Big Celebration Soundboard

Zompy Jumpy

Word Owl’s Word Search – Second Grade

Word Owl’s Word Search – First Grade

Ultra Soccer Match Soundboard

Quiz of Medicine

8-Bit Eagle Smash

Word Owl’s Word Search – Christmas

Motivational Quotes to Inspire

Word Owl’s Word Search – Kindergarten

Rest, Relax, and Reflect

Fireworks Showeator

Ultra Retro Game Soundboard

Jumbo Egg Hunt 2

Professor Piggy Bank

Gift Wrap Difference

Strike The Goal

Saving Bunnies

Jumbo Egg Hunt

Lightspeed Bit Bit

Chinatown Fortune Cookie

Paid version without ads also available

Paid version without ads also available

Light Up The Tree!

Detective Deep

Ultra Fortune Ball

Free version also available

Free version also available

Some App Store Reviews

RX Quiz of Pharmacy:
"This app is beautiful and highly functional as a study aid for the NAPLEX exam! Excellent for so little $." -VLenin (Apple)

Quiz of Medicine:
"I love this App!!! I love how it shows both generic and brand. Even shows meds that are just now being used. I wish this was out when I was in nursing school" -Winter Desmond (Google Play)

"Better than you think! Really good app has common meds you NEED to know" -Alyjha Williams (Google Play)

"This is a very good app to use in order to get some studying done as a pharmacy technician. I am studying for my board test and this application is the best that I have found in helping to understand questions and how to get them answered. Amazing tool to help you study." -ChelleTaylor (Apple)

Jumbo Egg Hunt 2:
"This is great because it can be played at an easier level for the youngsters. It is a lot of fun, easy to read directions. Great graphics. Happy Egg hunting." -Lady Song (Amazon)

Jumbo Egg Hunt:
""eggcellent" game. The normal mode is challenging enough to make the game enticing and the hard level is not impossible. What a cute game! Where's the bunny?" -Summer (Amazon)

"This is lots of relaxing fun to play. pretty backgrounds to hunt in and it is not to easy. In one word its fun!!" -Rita (Amazon)

"It is a very puzzling game for my kids and me but it is so much fun to search for the Easter eggs" -Maric (Amazon)

Lightspeed Bit Bit:
"This is a fun little endless game. Great for quick pick-me-up moments. The game is simple but has a cool theme. Game runs smooth and the graphics fit the game very well." -Frogcatcher (Apple)